---
title: 'Introduction'
description: 'PostgreSQL Extension Store in Nile'
icon: 'plug-circle-plus'
---

PostgreSQL extensions are powerful add-ons that enhance PostgreSQL's functionality beyond its core features. They introduce new data types, functions, and operators to the database - usually to support a specific use case.

This rich ecosystem of extensions is available to you out of the box in Nile. No need to install or even run `CREATE EXTENSION` commands. Just use the extension in your queries.
You can experiment with the extensions and try them out in the [Nile console](https://console.thenile.dev), by navigating to
the `Extensions` tab on the left.

![Extensions in Nile's Console](/images/extensions_in_console.png)

Don't see an extension you need? Let us know by creating a GitHub issue.

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## Featured Extensions

<CardGroup>
  <Card title="Pgvector" href="./vector" icon="vector-square">
    Perform vector similarity search and build AI-powered features
  </Card>
  <Card title="PostGIS" href="./postgis" icon="earth-americas">
    Add support for geographic objects, allowing you to run location queries in
    SQL
  </Card>
  <Card title="Pgcrypto" href="./pgcrypto" icon="lock">
    Encryption functions and hashing algorithms
  </Card>
  <Card title="Uuid-ossp" href="./uuid-ossp" icon="fingerprint">
    UUID generation functions
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Search and Indexing

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Bloom" href="./bloom" icon="filter">
    Probabilistic index that can be useful for columns with many distinct values
  </Card>
  <Card title="Btree_Gin" href="./btree_gin" icon="martini-glass-citrus">
    GIN index support for B-tree indexable data types.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Btree_Gist" href="./btree_gist" icon="tree">
    GiST index support for B-tree indexable data types.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Citext" href="./citext" icon="font-case">
    Case-insensitive text type
  </Card>
  <Card title="Fuzzystrmatch" href="./fuzzystrmatch" icon="puzzle-piece">
    Functions for fuzzy string matching
  </Card>
  <Card title="Pgvectorscale" href="./pgvectorscale" icon="vector-square">
    DiskANN index support for pgvector
  </Card>
  <Card title="Pg_bigm" href="./pg_bigm" icon="magnifying-glass">
    Full-text search using bigrams
  </Card>
  <Card title="Pg_similarity" href="./pg_similarity" icon="wave-sine">
    Text similarity measures in PostgreSQL
  </Card>
  <Card title="Pg_trgm" href="./pg_trgm" icon="triangle">
    Similarity search in PostgreSQL using trigrams
  </Card>
  <Card title="Prefix" href="./prefix" icon="phone">
    Prefix search functionality
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Statistical and Analytical

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Cube" href="./cube" icon="cube">
    Data type for multi-dimensional cubes
  </Card>
  <Card title="Financial" href="./financial" icon="coins">
    Specialized function for computing the Irregular Internal Rate of Return
    (XIRR)
  </Card>
  <Card title="Hll" href="./hll" icon="cabin">
    HyperLogLog++ algorithm for estimating the number of unique elements in a
    set
  </Card>
  <Card title="Intagg" href="./intagg" icon="hashtag">
    Integer aggregator and enumerator functions
  </Card>
  <Card title="Intarray" href="./intarray" icon="brackets-curly">
    Functions and operators for integer arrays
  </Card>
  <Card title="Quantile" href="./quantile" icon="chart-line">
    Efficient quantile and percentile calculations
  </Card>
  <Card title="Random" href="./random" icon="dice">
    Random data generator extension with wide range of data types
  </Card>
  <Card title="Tablefunc" href="./tablefunc" icon="table">
    Cross tabulation and pivot operations
  </Card>
  <Card title="Xicor" href="./xicor" icon="maximize">
    Incremental correlation calculations in PostgreSQL
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Geospatial

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Earthdistance" href="./earthdistance" icon="globe">
    Functions for calculating great-circle distances between points on Earth.
  </Card>
  <Card title="H3" href="./h3" icon="hexagon">
    Spatial indexing system developed by Uber
  </Card>
  <Card title="H3_PostGIS" href="./h3_postgis" icon="hexagon-image">
    Extends H3 functionality with PostGIS integration
  </Card>
  <Card title="Pgrouting" href="./pgrouting" icon="route">
    Geospatial routing extension for PostgreSQL
  </Card>
  <Card title="Postgis_raster" href="./postgis_raster" icon="table-cells">
    Raster Data Support for PostGIS
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Data Types and Storage

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Emailaddr" href="./emailaddr" icon="envelope">
    specialized data type for storing and validating email addresses
  </Card>
  <Card title="Hstore" href="./hstore" icon="key">
    Store key-value pairs within a single PostgreSQL value
  </Card>
  <Card title="Ip4r" href="./ip4r" icon="network-wired">
    IPv4 and IPv6 types and range operations
  </Card>
  <Card title="Isn" href="./isn" icon="barcode">
    International Standard Number data types
  </Card>
  <Card title="Ltree" href="./ltree" icon="folder-tree">
    Hierarchical tree-like structures in PostgreSQL databases
  </Card>
  <Card title="Rdkit" href="./rdkit" icon="flask">
    Chemical structure types and functions
  </Card>
  <Card title="Seg" href="./seg" icon="ruler">
    Line segment and floating-point interval data type
  </Card>
  <Card title="Unit" href="./unit" icon="ruler-combined">
    SI unit conversion and dimensional analysis
  </Card>
</CardGroup>
